Originally posted by Zav No you didn't say so but I would be interested to see a fair and honest comparison (without price consideration) to know if the 35 is a better piece of equipment.
Hmmm this got me thinking. Can we ever really say that one lens (or one car, or one smartphone, for that matter) is better than another one? Let's consider two fictional lenses. Lens A is a little sharper than lens B, has a faster aperture and is better built. So, it may be easy to conclude that lens A is "better" than lens B. Case solved; end of.......
But wait. Maybe your style of photography involves long hikes, or scaling mountains, or some other energetic activity. Lens B is half the weight of lens A. That may be an important factor, that outweighs (sorry, no pun intended) the moderate loss of sharpness or speed. Or you may do a lot of travel photography, and lens B is much cheaper than lens A, so if it's lost or stolen it is much more easily replaced. The lenses may have a different colour rendition, and it becomes a subjective choice as to which is more pleasing, or suits your type of photography more closely - skin tones for portraiture; sky rendition for landscapes, etc. One may focus more closely than the other, and so on.
So, it is quite possible that the "inferior" lens B might be the "better" lens - for you. And that's the clincher: which lens best suits your need? It might be lens A, but if you can't afford it, that's another pretty decisive factor. It would be nice if we could personally test out lenses for a few days before making a decision, but this is rarely possible. So, all too often we rely on the assessment of "experts" who can, at best, only give a mixture of measurement and opinion. The only opinion that really matters is your own, and this will depend on a variety of factors and only you can decide which are really important. I have learned this to my cost, having spent much money on brilliant lenses that never leave the house because of their size and weight. A clear case of want overcoming actual need.